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TRIALOGUES 



Copyright, 1897, by 
William Griffith. 



TRIALOGUES 



WILLIAM GRIFFITH 



33 



KANSAS CITY, MO. 
HUDSON- KIMBKRI.Y PUBIvISHING CO. 

mdcccxcvii 




\^-^c4,.l^'^^ *^ ^^ 



Of this Limited Edition of Tria- 
logues two hundred and fifty copies 
have been printed. 



This number is 



T 



n^7 



/^^ 



PREFATORY NOTE. 



In introducing the oi.d form 

of k1.izabkthan dialogue in america, 

i have attempted to 

outline three phases of character or, 

more particularly, of life in 

our large cities. 

With the exception of "Summer," and 

''Autumn" none of the 

Trialogues have appeared, heretofore 

and these are now reprinted 

with the permission 

OF Mr. Walter Bla^ckburn Harte, 

Editor of "The Lotus." 



Gladly I live^ and gladly did I weave 
And gather all these dreams for nothing 

more 
Than for my friends zvho came to 7ne. 

They leave — 
And I have pressed each hand and shut 

the door. 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

Spring i 

Summer 19 

Autumn 35 

Winter 51 



TO 

The Hon. Charles L. Dobson 



i\ 



SPRING 



Sckn:^ : A Western City ; Room in a 
Public House. 

Time : The Morning. 



SPRING. 



{AlvAN, 
Norman, 
Gii.es. 



Alan. 
I am unwell; some shadow daunts 
My dreams: where I should see, 
That vasty, uncouth vision haunts 
Each budding memory. 
Norman. 
An ill-starred mood. 

A1.AN. 

Its presence grows; 
Takes height; a whisper peals, — 
Thence up, for days, unnumbered woes 
Come snapping at my heels; 
3 



TRIALOGUES. 

While elfin-footed fancies race 
Down labyrinths immense, 
Of awful glooms where errors gaze 
On smiling innocence. 

Norman. 

Reveal the image: it is dim. 
My faith! I cannot see. 

A1.AN. 
Fo fico! It is Fortune's whim 
To jest at misery. 
And still, in spirit, I expand; 
Till now uplifted O 
Here at the sun, from where I stand, 
The earth swings far below! 
Light floods the world: each filmy mote; 
Each star up-swimming high — 



SPRING. 

Norman. 
Good-lack! 

Alan. 
I watcli arising float 
Across the day's great eye. 

Norman. 
And now? 

Alan. 
Ah, see the twilight swo on 
Now from her eastern bowers, 
Her face unveiled, a chastened moon 
Steps forth among her flowers. 

Norman. 
The image tails; each starlit steep 
Sweeps slowly into view — 
Uncurtained clear, yet wherefore leap, 
Coercive unto you, 
5 



TRIALOGUES. 

These dreams in melancholy dreamt, 
Though prophecies to see ? 
Cambyses' vein — 

Alan. 
I will attempt 
To tell you faithfully. 
A child, at home to country ways, 
'T is here these many years, 
A sickening sun has led my days 
Through uncongenial spheres. 
At eve, its sprawling avenues 
Upreaching through the gloom. 
One nest, the writhing city views 
Its over-arching tomb; 
Where happy harlots nightly throng, 
Obscurely disarrayed. 
With glaring, high, fantastic song 
While virtue weeps dismayed; 



SPRING. 

And each poor beggar, day by day, 
Amid tbe sights that breed 
Through uncouth alleys, strolls — the 

prey 
Of every crouching need. 

Imagination first waylaid 
These unenticing themes; 
Eftsoons deep sympathy had made 
Them shapers of my dreams. 

When soft! remembering that hope 
Is haply to forget, 
I spun each sighing, sandy rope 
For happiness and yet — 

Once here when, raving in his cell 
At some gaoler's nod. 
They said the prisoner prayed to hell, 
I almost doubted God. 

7 



TRIALOGUES, 

Norman. 
All reason rests unreconciled 
When melancHoly broods, 
And, Alan, why to-day these wild. 
Premeditated moods? 

To-day! — when forth the starling's 

lauds 
Through heaven's rafters ring. 
Till ho! yon very sun applauds 
The jocund shout of Spring? 

Al^AN. 

Stay, camarado ! On the street 
This drowsy afternoon, 
Across the way, I chanced to meet 
Our apparitioned June. 

It was a lady, O to see. 
One beautiful delight ! 



SPRING. 

Unknown a lilied prophecy 
Had blossomed on my sight, 

As vanishing, another face 

Was summoned up to me, 

Of one whose smile shall only grace 

A treasured memory : 

And all in silence I have felt 

The magic of the lark ; 

And here, these many moments, dwelt 

With other days — but hark ! 

{Singing heard without?) 

SONG. 

They have asked me why the flowers^ 

Lady mine^ 
Fill my days with saddened hours ^ 

As they pine. 



TRIALOGUES. 

Surely they know not the room^ 
In Dreani's chambers^ where the gloom 
May be sweetened by their bloom ^ 
Lady mine! 

If I plucked the stars for roses ^ 

Lady mine^ 
And told all that Day discloses^ 

As the shine 
Of the sunlight strikes the shade 
Round the golden petals laid 
On your bosom^ they would fade ^ 

Lady mi^ie. 

But if I could run a brook^ 

Lady 7nine^ 
That with chatters through each nook 

Would entwine 
In its silver^ laughing flow 
All the roses ^ do you know 
What the breeze would whisper low^ 

Lady mine? 



SPRING. 
Norman. 

What odd musician doting there 
In Fancy's train, beguiles 
The zephyr's harping of an air 
To Phyllis? 

Al,AN. 

It is Giles. 

(^Enter Giles still singing^ 

Ah! the falling years grow heavy ^ 

Lady mine, 
Thd the blossoms in your bevy 

Still are fine: 
Do you know what Time will do 
To the roses plucked for you^ 
When the sun has left no dew^ 

Lady mine? 
II 



TRIALOGUES. 
Al.AN. 

A-ha ! with Cupid from tHe woods ! 
The king-cups you have seen, 
Approaching, dofif their little hoods 
Before the fairy queen. 

Norman. 

Queen o^ the fairies ! You allow 
Such rhymes? 

GlI.ES. 

I^ faith ! I seem 
To see the fairies even now 
As in a boyish dream, 

There deep down in a sylvan dell, 
All trooping through the shade, 
Step by step to the cowslip's bell, 
A gorgeous cavalcade. 



SPRING. 

The little warriors gathered round, 

Their leafy lances bent, 

A beetle shrill, his bugle wound, 

Proclaims the tournament. 

While hushed as now the airy sprites 

Upraise a muffled cheer, 

Twinkling dim, the glow-worm lights 

His swinging chandelier. 

Norman. 
Alack ! Our jocund friend, returned 
From where the twilight veils 
A countryside, has only learned 
To label fairy tales. 

G11.KS. 
Stand to your ears ! A starry fay. 
With heaven listening 
Out on the hills, taught me to-day 
A song the linnets sing. 
13 



TRIALOGUES, 

Norman. 
What? 

Al,AN. 

What ? Proceed ! 

GlI.ES. \ 

Stay, let me think ! 
Norman. 
Yea ! — Alan, would you pin 
The angels down? Come, let us 

drink — 
Our comely Spring. 

A1.AN. GlI.ES. 

Begin. 
Norman. 
Up comrades then, and shut the door 
In Melancholy's face ! 
This game of life must end before 
'T will out who drew the ace. 
14 



SPRING. 

A Stout heart is tlie merry heart ; 
Your weeping heart is frail ; 
So ho ! with fellowships for part, 
I sing the humming ale. 

Chorus. 

We sing the humming ale, good friend ! 

But here 's a health to you. 

With one more, when the game shall 

end, 
To show the cards we drew. 
Heigh-ho 1 the bowl, from brim to brim, 
Lies full. Fill a cup. 
While now the rosy apples swim, 
All hael ! Drinc it up. 

A1.AN. 
The city holds for some, mayhap, 
A jolly life, but O 
15 



TRIALOGUES. 

As early Spring forefeels tHe sap 
Awaken through the snow, 
Give me the sturdy roving foot, 
Then with a shouldered load, 
When Hope brings in an easy boot, 
I sing the open road. 

Chorus. 

We sing the open road, good friend ! 

But here 's a health to you, 

With one more to the nappy blend 

Of Saxon in the brew. 

Heigh-ho ! the bowl, from brim to brim, 

Lies full. Fill a cup. 

While now the rosy apples swim, 

All hael ! Drinc it up. 



i6 



SPRING. 

GiLKS. 

The clamor of tHe towns may sleep 

A thousand years and still — 

Dreams in a thousand hearts shall leap, 

Touched by the urging Will. 

The east may blight the winds that 

bless ; 
The wander-child may rove ; 
But O for hope and happiness, 
I sing the song of love. 

Chorus. 

We sing the song of love, good friend \ 
But here 's a health to you, 
With one more to the hopes that send 
The parting moments through. 



17 



TRIALOGUES. 



Heigh-ho ! the bowl, from brim to brim, 
Lies full. Fill a cup. 
While now the rosy apples swim, 
All hael ! Drinc it up. 



5 UMMER 



Scene : The Same. 
Time : At Night. 



19 



SUMMER. 



r Gii.Es, 

Person^, < Norman, 

I Al,AN. 



Gii,e:s. 
A clear soprano, filled of sun, 
The skylark weaves his wedding-song. 

Norman. 
The redbreast's throated musics throng 
At Summer's wand and Spring is done. 

Sweet marigolds, a pledge of hope, 
Adorn the marshes at her tread. 

GlIvKS. 

A thousand gardens now are spread 
With showers of pinks and heliotrope. 

21 



TRIALOGUES. 

Norman. 
And daisy-blossoms fringe the lanes. 

Giles. 
And where the drowsy primrose naps 
A livelong day, the preachers' caps 
Are filled once more with summer rains. 

While soft ! the orioles have made 
Their marriage-hymns. 

Alan. 

Alack ! you would 
Out-summer Summer at your mood 
Of preachers, weddings! Heaven's 

aid! 
A distant sound of weary feet 
Arises slowly to my ears ; 
Yon deepening fountain-head of tears 
Afar off playing up the street. 

22 



SUMMER. 
GiLKS. 

Mark there the redstart's alto ring ! 

Al,AN. 

You 'd have me watch the roses blush. 

G11.KS. 
About this hour a conscious hush 
Spreads shattered where the linnets 
sing. 

Norman. 
A conscious hush. 

Gii.:es. 

Yea, through the land, 
Each from his shell-releasing rift. 
The nested little songsters lift 
Their singing worlds at Summer's 
wand. 

A1.AN. 

A threadbare topic hackneyed. 
23 



TRIALOGUES. 

GlIyKS. 

Nay, nay ! 

Alan. 

Then, comrade, let us see 
These blooms that flush your memory — 

Norman. 
With blossoms of the countryside. 
Quick, shade the lamps ! 
Alan. 

Ay, turn them out ! 

GiLKS. 

A moment's breath ! You may not see. 

Norman. 
Dive deep ! We 're pledged to secrecy. 

Alan. 
Begin while silence soothes the doubt. 

We wait. 

24 



SUMMER. 

No more ! The vision fills, 
Afar, with clouds of azure foam : 
I watch the ploughboys winding home 
Where twilight washes on the hills. 

A distant ridge : with shaded eyes, 
I stand, I gaze ; a herdsman's call 
Fades far away — one rapturous fall, 
Ere faint lo, lo ! the echo dies, 

As softly yonder drifting slow, 
Now throated full, now clear and lone, 
The dim thrush drops a trembling tone 
With peals of musics laughing low. 

Thence murmurous hark! the night- 
ingale 

Chaunts forth in strong, melodious 
ease, 

25 



TRIALOGUES. 

Till higH, there — white with galaxies, 
The queen-moon dons her silver veil; 

Whilst slowly dying out again, 
Again the wildish wood-notes break 
With throbbing waves : the zephyrs 

shake — 
And darkness overruns the plain. 

Alan. 
A climbing vision. 

Norman. 

Ay, a dream ! 
I saw the very shapes take wing. 

Al,AN. 

'T is strange — of shepherds you should 

sing, 
While yonder hellish whistles scream . 

26 



SUMMER. 

Norman. 
A rara avis sight to see 
When skylarks carol in the street. 

GlLKS. 

Extremes, wide-circling, often meet — 
And discord strengthens harmony. 

Now, Alan, why forever dwell 

On direful woes and ancient wrongs ? 

Your dreams a-ha ! wing many songs. 

AlvAN. 

I hardly know. I cannot tell. 

Above me, latterly each day. 

Some couching sorrow grimly peers, 

With hanging jaws. 

Norman. 

Defenseless fears. 
Unleash the dogs and trudge away. 

27 



TRIALOGUES. 

A danger, wooed in willfulness, 
Caps vanity. 

Giles. 
And once decoyed, 
Decisive moments, unemployed. 
Make rapid runners of distress. 

Alan. 
I cannot move, and O the sting 
Of final doom wHen all is done 
And He has said — ''Yon drowsy one, 
Yon lowly one did only sing" ! 

Norman. 
Nay ; come, pour out the ruddy ale. 
While foaming there the billow breaks 

Giles. 
And while the distant boscage shakes 
With long, clear whistles of the quail. 

28 



SUMMER. 

If duty has been reckoned least, 
A song is nobler never sung. 

Norman. 
Right, comrade, rosaries are strung 
For penitents as well as priest. 

Al,AN. 

Delay me not ! Tho' feeble speech 
May touch the story clumsily. 
Some brooding image follows me — 
Prodigious in its subtle reach. 

I gaze from Heaven's lowest gate 
Adown Her vasty, starlit hall : 
I watch the nations rise and fall. 
Like shadows, at the whim of Fate. 

A moment near, a moment gone. 
Beneath ten thousand watching eyes, 

29 



TRIALOGUES. 

One tliunderous rush rings out and 

dies — 
And still the world moves on and on ; 

While sweeping down each azure road 
With banners fading one by one, 
The cohorts pass and — here alone, 
I dream the solitude of God. 

GlI.ES. 

Unreal reality. 

Norman, 
Ha!— Yes. 
The very phrase, the very phrase. 
But come, a health ! One more — to 

raise 
This siege of Alan's moodiness. 

GlI,ES. 

Dread Ercles' shade ! 
30 



SUMMER. 

Norman. 

To Alan ;— then, 
Good-nigHt. 

GiLKS 

You leave? 
Norman. 

My holiday. 

GlI.ES. 

And whither? 

Norman. 
England. 

G11.KS. 

What? Hooray! 
Come fill — to all true Englishmen. 

A1.AN. 
A health to England ? Why not, pray ! 
Oar great America? I fear — 

31 



TRIALOGUES. 
G11.KS. 

No more, we drink I 

Al,AN. 

Then let us Hear, 
All standing now, from Norman. 

Norman. 

Stay ! 

We have heard the toast to a people 

Who inherit the English tongue; 
By the men of the world'' s four-quarters 

Their praises have been sung, — 
And a day may yet see the nations^ 

In the West^ wield a kindred sword ^ 
With the strength as of brothers braving 

An oriental horde. 

For the East ^s a Babel erected 

By the yesterdays^ thousand years^ 

Where a current slowly gathers 
The rhythm now that nears 
32 



SUMMER. 

Where the Western waters are chanting 

Songs under the golden sun^ 
With a nebulous chorus singing — 

The end has not begun. 
But I toast not the West ^ her children, — 

Nor the East^ nor the South^ nor 
North; 
But to-night, as the starry cohorts 

Break ranks and sally forth^ 
With a health to a greater kindred 

On either side of the sea^ 
I drink that the sun forever 

Light all the nations free. 
So fill up to the brim your glasses^ 

And now^ as brothers may, 
While the fellowship of the nations 

Swings down the broader day, 
Let us drink to the Earth^s fore- fat hers; 

To the Universal Plan; 
To the Law of a kindred children, 

From the Straits to Hindostan, 

33 



AUTUMN 



Scene : The Same. 
Time : The Afternoon. 



35 



AUTUMN, 



PERSON^, ] GlI<KS, 

( Norman. 



(^All entering ^ 

AlvAN. 

How long ? 

Norman. 
Four months. 

AI.AN. 

Four months away 
My faith ! and you return to meet, 
Here in an overburdened day, 
The rush and clamor of the street I 

37 



TRIALOGUES. 

Where men, who toil for daily bread, 
Must follow as the phantom leads — 
And have placed on each brow, instead 
Of coronals, a flow of beads ! 

Words fail me utterly to think 
How, Norman, you, who had the sea 
Before your eyes, could cease to drink 
The nectar of such luxury. 
Norman. 

But— 

Alan. 

Though Content can house the sun 
When Joy sits by the ingle-hearth, 
There is no joy for anyone 
Denied the freedom of the earth. 

And I, and /, the sorry slave 
Of ink, have penned but hollow words 
38 



AUTUMN. 

For weeks, because I dared not brave 
Dismissal and go where the birds, 

Across the dreamy, golden hours, 
Through sunny afternoons took 

flight— 
And, singing, wakened in the flowers 
The pulses of a new delight. 

But here through endless toil I stay 
To keep away the fear of Need, 
Of Need, the child of sick Delay, 
With thoughts of other mouths to feed ; 

While over and above it all 
I feel the hornets of Distress, 
As now and then I half recall 
Some old, forgotten happiness. 

G11.KS. 
I' faith, Alan ! Whom have you met 
39 



TRIALOGUES. 

To introduce so mucli of gloom ? 
In happiness one must forget. 

Al,AN. 

My Spring, that left, forgot to bloom. 

And happiness, tHo' erstwhile sweet, 
Was but as poppies ere they swoon 
With faces shyly raised to meet 
A fatal kiss, the kiss of noon. 
For days grow long and one grows 

tired 
Of shaping ways and means to fit : 
You may not know, but I am hired — 
The latest auctioneer of wit. 
With all the harvest of a youth 
Misspent, I now am left by Art, 
With patched-up songs to bear — 

forsooth ! 

The burden of a wasted heart. 

40 



AUTUMN. 

Norman. 
Pray heaven stay ! I feel but now 
Beneath Thought's tardy finger-tips, 
The way your name begins to flow 
Through Europe on a thousand lips. 
I heard it in a London mart ; 
I heard it near Berlin amid 
The caravans, and in the heart, 
The very heart of old Madrid, 
I heard men marvel as they praised 
The mighty Mother who, at last, 
Brought forth and mightily upraised 
A singer who could shame the past. 

Al,AN. 

Yet in War^s breath, it doth suffice 
To say that we who sing — alack ! 
Are but as foolish little flies 
Blown in a dusty window-crack. 
41 



TRIALOGUES. 

So out with cares and let us hear 
How Giles has found the countryside, 
And how the golden fields appear 
With portaled harvests opened wide. 

Long, long — 

GlI.ES. 

Enough, the word is made ! 
Lo ! summoned in a dream, bedight 
With rosy meadow-lands of shade, 
The orchards gather into sight. 

As through the apples, high and low, 
In ruddy colors deeply spread 
From core to rind, the sun melts slow 
With gold upcaught across the red ; 

While here and there, with sighs and 

calls, 
A wandering brooklet, as it rings 

42 



AUTUMN. 

Beneatli the heaven, chants — then falls 
And down the meadow softly sings. 

A light w4nd shifts ; the air is stirred 
With secret whispers far and near: 
Another word — ah me ! a word 
Had made the rose's meaning clear. 

I see the fields ; I catch the scent 
Of odors from the fresh split wood, 
Where bearded lips and stains are blent 
With autumn rains and all is good. 

An air, arising, turns and lifts 
The fallen leaves where they had lain 
Beneath the trees, then weakly shifts 
And slowly settles back again ; 

While with far shouts, now homeward 

bound. 
Across the fields the reapers go, 

43 



TRIALOGUES. 

And lo ! with darkness closing round, 
The lilies of the twilight blow. 

A1.AN. 
Ah me ! and still the sootish towns 
Grow greater with increasing flocks 
Of men who, risking Nature's frowns, 
Chance all upon the rise of stocks. 

So trolls, and Art is but a mood 
Of Nature's placed within the eyes 
Of fools who crave a dotard's food, 
Mixed half with truth and half with 
lies. 

Norman. 
Your figure errs upon the part 
Of droves and flocks : why it is fleece 
Half clothes the world, and as for Art — 
The city is a masterpiece. 

44 



AUTUMN. 

Giles. 
And I oft think it is but meet 
That beauty never grows so fair 
But that men, searching in the street, 
May find it there, may find it there. 
So, Norman, soft, and let us hear 
Of England with its ancient halls — 
And into Europe bring us near 
The brave old warriors' sturdy walls : 
When victor over vanquished stood — 
And men thought chivalry to be 
A pilgrimage in manlihood, 
Before the shrine of courtesy. 

Norman. 
True then — but customs never stay, 
And there is little to relate 
Beyond such things as be to-day, 
With chivalry, passed out-of-date. 

45 



TRIALOGUES. 

Still, as when in that Minster aisle 
Amid the tombs, at times I see 
A stately vision slowly file 
From the old realms of pageantry ; 

When England's lion-hearted king 
Was royally her troubadour — 
And he, of fame still echoing, 
Belied his youth at Agincourt, — 

Long ere those simple warrior lords, 
Within the Temple Garden's gate 
Stood, and on high, with fiery words. 
Raised the red rose and wrecked a 

state. 
But battles serve Life's massive chart, 
As periods alone for those 
Who rule an august people's heart 
Above high feuds of warring foes ; 
46 



AUTUMN. 

And Shakespeare, as lie lives to-day, 
Is still tHe master wlio can sing 
Snch songs as only singers may 
When joy-bells of a nation ring. 

AI.AN. 

Ay, ay indeed ! A king to reign ! 
A prince among the men of rhyme ! 
A man bid by the Fates remain 
Forever at the heart of Time ! 

GiLKS. 

Immortal mortal ! 

AI.AN. 

Chancer's peer ! 
Onr El Dorado of romance ! 
Our mine of gold ! 

Norman. 

In truth, I fear 
No eulogies are left for France ! 

47 



TRIALOGUES. 

Nor for the Man of Destiny 
Who, in His hour of triumph — lo ! 
With unawed will was soon to see 
The ruined dream at Fontainebleau. 

So, closing let us mourn the night, 
Wherein the heavens, once again. 
With Europe watching, leap to light 
Above the star — the star of Spain. 

Gii<Ks. 
We will not mourn; we will not end 
While Hope and Love continue great. 
The West is strong. 

AI.AN. 

The West will lend 
Her strength to aid a crippled state. 

Norman. 
Then ho, for this young land of ours ! 

48 



AUTUMN. 
Al,AN. 

This child of nations, brave to do ! 

Hurrah ! we bring her native flowers. 

Norman. 
We bring her amaranth and rue. 



49 



WINTER 



Scene : The Same. 
Time : At Night. 



51 



WINTER. 



C Norman, 
Person^, < Ai,an, 
( Gii.ES. 



Norman. 
A dolour, x\lan, though you know 
To brood thus over wrongs, 
By nursing half-feigned, sickly woe, 
Gives birth to crippled songs? 

Why, comrade, woe is but the one 

Wan dew-drop in a cup, 

To live a moment ere the sun 

Forever dries it up. 

So come, bring in the rosy ale! 

A brimmer? To be sure! 

53 



TRIALOGUES. 

For, out of Eden, hopes prevail, 
We know, but to endure. 

Pile on the logs. 

A1.AN. 

Your mood is light; 
Nathless 't is lighter still 
Must be the hearts of those, to-night. 
Who wist evade the chill: 

When crouching snithe within its lair. 
Now shrewdly shifting — hark! 
How clean the claws of Winter tear 
The marrow of the dark. 

Ah, comrades, do you know how wild. 
How piercing, incomplete. 
Is silence when a little child 
Begs vainly through the street? 

54 



WINTER, 

I see the idle workman roam, 
Wan victim of his fate, 
Half starved with charity become 
A last year's fashion-plate. 

And O by many a hearth — Distress, 
The mother, hollow-eyed, 
Concealing from a childish guess 
Her poor heart-broken pride! 

I hear the Christian curse his birth, 
With strong men crying out 
Against the heavens and the earth, 
In agonies of doubt. 

I see Despair traced on the wall, 
Where none knew what it meant — 
And, leaving, only could recall 
Some smothered discontent. 



55 



TRIALOGUES. 

Again they meet. Lo, lo^ — the tread 
Of lawless bands! I see, 
Now on a thousand faces spread, 
The scowl of anarchy. 

GlI.ES. 

Enough, speak not these whiles of 

things 
So blighting to our cheer: 
But rather list — the birch log sings 
A welcome to the year. 
The glad New Year, for through the 

land 
I know joys still prevail; 
So let the world swing by, and hand. 
Ho! hand around the ale. 

And mark you how the flame-flowers 

soothe 

The Old Year into glee, 
56 



WINTER. 

With yon log crooning low to smooth 
Your frowns of anarchy. 

Al^AN. 

My anarch frowns? 

GiLKS. 

Yes. 

Al^AN. 

Sure you know 
They shadow darkened moods. 
I ken not why. But ah, the glow 
Of flame-flowers scents the woods! 

Norman. 
What? Ho, a gull! Such flowers are 

fair. 
But claim for them a scent, 
And A, before the gods, declare 
You are a decadent. 

57 



TRIALOGUES, 

Alan. 
So — joins another now to cry 
A hackneyed phrase at large 
Through literature — 

Norman. 

Perpol ! 

Al^AN. 



And fly 



No reasons with the charge? 

Norman. 
Then, comrade, tell us how you write 
That dreadful passion lere, 
And how the learned critics slight 
A modern sonneteer. 

AI.AN. 

The tale is less than many think 
Who christen it divine, 

58 



WINTER. 

Witli no emotions taught to drink 
Remembrance as of wine. 
My days are spent pursuing Art, 
With Nature for a guide, 
Amid the lilies of the heart, 
Through fibres pushed aside. 

Wherefore I cull me here a rose 
With lilies in between. 
And reap but where Another sows. 
To sow where others glean. 

While plucking blossoms, now and 

then. 
For Love's own sake, I know, 
Hope's death! nor how nor even when 
Another one will grow. 

And so, beneath the weight of Time, 
My heart, with making sure 

59 



TRIALOGUES, 

Of songs ere caged within a rHyme, 
Wists tHem evade the lure. 

But still the worst — 

GlI,KS. 

Out with your moods — 
And quick, the flagons bring! 
For yonder lo! I see the woods, 
Now carpeted with Spring; 

While wafted through the breezes, all 
Impearled with dewy gems, 
The flowers drift up before they fall 
To settle on the stems. 

And there the sleepy roses peer 
Around the passing herds. 
With blowings quelled as if to hear 
Some carol of the birds: 

60 



WINTER. 

While back and forth the king-cups 

skip 
About the blossom queen; 
All watching now the crocus trip 
A measure down the green. 

AlvAN. 

The wind raves on. I see the snow 
Silt softly through the street, 
With muted echoes from the slow, 
Slow tramp of tired feet. 

Where sad hearts pass, who feel the 

stern 
Necessities that prop 
Their failing strength, and O but 

learn 
The hopelessness of hope! 

Norman. 
A midnight bell — 

6i 



TRIALOGUES. 
GlLKS. 

No more, for lo! 
I only see the woods, 
As down the year, beyond the snow, 
A rosy orchard buds; 

Wherein by many a spreading tree. 
Beneath the blossoms' sway, 
In sweet forgetfulness, I see 
The little children play. 

While vocalized, the air now shakes. 
As, after waiting long 
Beside her nest, the mother breaks 
Into a world of song — 

Till gathering from far and near. 
The wondrous lyrics ring. 
With daffodils aroused to hear 
The leaping laugh of Spring; 

62 



WIISTER, 

For higli the golden day has grown, 
Where, with the darkness gone, 
Around the lily stars are blown 
The roses of the dawn. 

Norman. 
Hurrah, hurrah! And Fate now pins 
On high a starry page. 

A1.AN. 
A dawn? 

GlI.ES. 

The dawn — 

Norman. 

Whereof begins 
Another golden age. 

Al,AN. 

O what a sorry jest! It rings 
With mockeries of Art. 

63 



TRIALOGUES. 
Norman. 
It is no jest; for Joy still sings 
Deep in the Day's great heart. 

Al,AN. 

I fear the songs know much distress. 

Norman. 
Your Fear 's a parasite. 

Al,AN. 

Then tell us of this happiness. 
This lyric-grown Delight — 

Norman. 
Shall sing forever and for aye 
Its sweet Magnificat^ 
While lad and lass together stray; — 

GlIyKS. 

High heaven echoes that, 
For it is Love makes manhood great. 
64 



WINTER. 

Norman. 
Lovers loveliness unfurled, — 
All drink : A master of its fate- 
The world. 

Alan. 
Alas! 

GlI.ES. 

The world! 



Thk End. 



65 



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